Environmental Goal Constraint of Local Government and Residents’ Physical and Mental Health

This paper takes the signing of the “Responsibility Agreement for Reducing the Total Amount of Major Pollutants” as an exogenous policy shock, and uses the Difference-in-Difference Method (DID) to study the impact of local government environmental target constraints on residents’ physical and mental health. The research results show that: (1) Local government environmental goal constraints are beneficial for improving residents’ physical health, deteriorating residents’ mental health in the short term, and have no significant impact on residents’ mental health in the long term. (2) From the perspective of mechanism, in the short term, local government environmental goal constraints not only lead to the optimization of environmental quality and improvement of residents’ physical health, but also increase unemployment and worsen residents’ mental health by causing the exit or relocation of pollution intensive industries in the region; In the long run, local government environmental goal constraints can promote technological innovation, increase the output of non-pollution-intensive industries in the region, compensate for employment losses caused by the relocation of pollution intensive industries, and no longer have a deteriorating effect on residents’ mental health; (3) The impact of environmental goal constraints on residents’ physical and mental health has an inter regional spillover effect, which deteriorates the physical health of nearby residents and improves their mental health; (4) The short-term deterioration effect of environmental goal constraints on residents’ mental health is more pronounced in male, middle-aged, and rural populations. The research conclusion of this article provides important reference for the rational formulation of relevant environmental policies to promote residents’ physical and mental health.